Natural Born Killers (1994)

Summary

A media frenzy follows a pair of mass murderers.

Director

Oliver Stone

Downey Factor

Low-Medium.

Character

Wayne Gale, an Australian tabloid news reporter.

Looks

Like a bearded, '90s tabloid reporter.

Performance

Effectively conveys the slimy side of his character, but he gets lost in the movie.

Line

Repetition works, David. Repetition works, David.

Accent

Australian

Dies, Gay or Villain

Yes, no, yes.

Cast

Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, Rodney Dangerfield, Tom Sizemore

Connection

Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School.

Woody Harrelson in A Scanner Darkly.

Tommy Lee Jones in U.S. Marshals.

Juliette Lewis in Due Date.

Tom Sizemore in Heart and Souls.

Oliver Stone in The Last Party.

Jared Harris in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Joe Grifasi in Chances Are.

Adrien Brody in The Singing Detective.

Balthazar Getty in The Judge.

RDJ Says

I see it as a death-of-the-1980s movie and prophetic. I loved Tom Sizemore in it, and Tommy Lee Jones was brilliant even though he was really annoyed by me… I could do my death scene right now [in 2011], I swear. It's so great. I think in that movie we were all playing aspects of Oliver Stone, and I think my character was the aspect that he wanted to see gunned down.... I remember the day we filmed [my character's death scene]. I had loads of words, and I was treating it like theater, and I was frustrated that my co-stars [Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis] weren't supporting me. Usually I'm the one who is acting like a drunken monkey, but they were the ones that didn't know their lines. I think I was just nervous. They did to me what I did to Tommy Lee Jones ... I love Natural Born Killers a whole bunch. I remember that period of time when it was so safe and fun to be out of your gourd then go work really hard and do a real trippy, cool movie ... I had never been in a situation where there was more than enough money to do whatever the director wanted. It was very experimental in a lot of ways and it was just really fun ... I was down for anything, particularly for [Oliver Stone]. I literally would like chew glass for him in a master in the background ... This was a nuts shoot. Every potential affront to sanity and integrity was committed. I remember it fondly. It [was] pagan Rome 26 AD. [Oliver Stone's] pushing you into the script lady ... There was like loud heavy metal music playing, coming from the cart where his monitor's on and where his chair is. It was like the environment was definitely being set. We were shooting in a real prison, it was hot, it was like being in hell, basically. This one part of Natural Born Killers in the prison break and all that stuff, it was literally like going to hell everyday ... There's one scene where we're going through the bowels [of the prison] with Owen, and I suddenly realize, what's this dripping down? It's from the sewage pipe. That means we're walking through criminal shit, where like 78% of these guys are HIV positive, and the others, you know, it's their shit ... It was the most disgusting thing that I've been in. Oliver's like, "Yeah, it's great do it again, do it again, great, great," he's down at the end, I did it like six times. I broke. It was like my Hanoi Hilton moment ... Anybody who grew up with some craziness in their family, there was that kind of stuff. There was Hogan's Heroes and all those weird—there was incest and laugh tracks in the background in peoples' lives, and I think it freaks people out. They don't know what to do, and anger recovers fear.

Gossip

Tom Sizemore, on shooting in a real prison: "They were, you know, yelling at Juliette. A lot of guys liked Robert—a lot of the inmates. It was like a toss-up between Juliette [Lewis] and Robert as to who was the most sexually interesting to them."

Availability

Released in theaters 26 August 1994. On DVD in Region 1, 2 and 4; also on Blu-Ray.

Foreign Titles

Argentina: Asesinos por Naturaleza (Killers by Nature)
Brazil: Assassinos por Natureza (Killers by Nature)
Croatia: Roðeni Ubojice (Born Killers)
Finland: Syntyneet Tappajiksi (Natural Killers)
France: Tueurs-nés (Natural Born Killers)
Italy: Assassini Nati (Born Killers)
Poland: Urodzeni Mordercy (Productive Butchers)
Portugal: Assassinos Natos (Natural Killers)
Spain: Asesinos Natos (Natural Killers)
Venezuela: Asesinos por naturaleza (Killers by Nature)

Rotten Tomatoes

50% Fresh | 30 Reviews

Critical View

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Using a Robin Leach accent that makes the whole thing into showbiz, he's so thrilled to be in the same frame with these famous killers that he hardly cares what happens to him. Watch his reaction in the final bloody showdown, when he believes he is immune because, after all, he has the camera.

Stephen Farber, Movieline: To quote Wayne Gale, Natural Born Killers is junk food for the brain—numbing and banal. For all its flash and swagger, it evaporates two minutes after you've seen it.

Does It Hold Up

No. Natural Born Killers savagely satirized the media landscape of its day. Sure, at the time, the point went over some people's heads—there were people who liked it because of the violence and people who accused it of being the very thing it was criticizing (the media glorifying violence). But in an age where those kinds of TV shows (the type that Downey's character hosts in this movie) don't really exist anymore, everyone's obsessed with true crime and real-life violence eclipses concerns over violence in "the media," this movie is a relic from a culture war that's been over for two decades.

2 Reasons to See It

1. The idea of Downey with an Australian accent drives you wild.
2. Whenever someone remarks, "It's so violent!" you can scoff, because you get it.

Overall

It's a weird cultish bloodbath already, interesting though probably not worth seeing if Robert Downey is the only thing about it that appeals to you.

If You Like It

You might also like Zodiac (2007), Greaser's Palace (1972), torturing small animals.

Photos

Video